Introduction
The modern era is marked by the importance of intellectual property rights (“IPR”) influencing international trade and indigenous trade around the world. Digitalization has made it easier for third parties to steal creative ideas.
The contribution of intellectual property (“IP”) to the economy of our country and states is substantial. Patents, trademarks, and copyrights provide the foundation for numerous industries across our economy, while IP ensures the safety of products and guarantees their quality. It is therefore believed that IP rights should be protected both domestically and internationally.
The Coronavirus pandemic is still ongoing and several countries are still in a state of emergency. As vaccines are introduced around the world, the global economy is attempting to recover despite uncertain trade conditions. As the intellectual property enforcement and brand protection environment continues to evolve rapidly, activity restructuring may be needed in many cases to survive the recession.
Businesses now increasingly rely on their ideas and are more likely to generate income through the sale of concepts, ideas and information rather than relying just on physical goods. As a result, IP protection is more important than ever for companies, and the law firms specializing in IP law are now scrambling to manage their workload.
The Rising Demand For IP Lawyers
If you are a student or a current working professional in any other field than IP and are trying to establish yourself as a professional in the IP field, then this is the right time for you to network in the right industries.
The following are the industries where there is a huge demand for IP attorneys:
- Tech Industry: Intellectual property law has been significantly growing due to the technology industry. In a rapidly evolving industry, companies constantly need to innovate and create new products to remain relevant. However, the tech products are not valued by the product itself, but by the patents attached to the technology.
Companies that can patent new ways of doing things and prevent their rivals from re-creating them for a specific duration, stand to earn substantial profits. To keep up with new technologies, companies are required to take out patents constantly. The tech industry, therefore, offers several opportunities for lawyers specializing in intellectual property, or licensing, or specifically, patenting.
- Fashion Industry: In the fashion sector, businesses or freelancers can be massively affected by counterfeiting, and if they discover that people are using their brand or product without prior authorisation, they may have a legal recourse if such brand or product is protected under Intellectual Property Laws.
Since the fake/duplicate products in the markets on the rise, the fashion companies are now becoming more proactive in taking legal actions against the counterfeiters.
Fake designer clothes and rip-offs are extremely common in the fashion industry; hence, if you are interested in working in the fashion industry and dealing with such kinds of cases, you are likely to get clients as an IP attorney.
- The Oil & Gas Industry: The oil and gas sector is an area of rapidly growing interest for IP lawyers because such companies need to patent and copyright their innovations and breakthroughs to sustain their competitive advantage.
Whenever oil reserves begin to dry up, the companies, which undergo the task of drilling, are forced to move away from easily accessible and easy-to-access sites, forcing them to approach more difficult terrain to extract more oil.
As a result, the companies need to develop innovative techniques for drilling and to have a competitive advantage, they need to get these innovations patented- thereby creating a consistent demand for IP lawyers.
IP As A Career?
The practice of IP law protects the creations of human beings. Creation might be a patent-eligible invention or a musical or artistic work, such as a book, play, or artwork which has to be copyrighted. Additionally, products, slogans, logos, and signs used in commerce may be protected; as can symbol, names, images, and designs.
The following are the key areas of the practice under the IP Law:
- Patent (The Patents Act, 1970 (as amended in 2005)
- Trademarks (Trade Marks Act, 1999)
- Copyright and related rights (The Copyright Act, 1957)
- Industrial Designs (The Designs Act, 2000)
- Geographical Indications (The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999)
- Information Technology and Cybercrimes (The Information Technology Act, 2000)
- Data Protection [Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011]
Why Intellectual Property?
Innovation cannot be fostered without the protection of Intellectual Property. Without IP protection, businesses and individuals would be unable to capitalize on their inventions and would be less inclined to develop new products. The cultural vitality of a nation would be adversely affected since artists would not be adequately compensated for their works.
IPR play a vital role in national economies, which is there should be a robust framework for facilitating this area of law. The enforcement of patents, trademarks, and copyrights is essential to the success of industries in almost every country, and thus, should be protected. On the other hand, consumers often use IP indicators to ensure they are purchasing quality goods.
The question, however, arises is that what are the considerations people evaluate to pursue a career?
To pursue a career, the people (including students) look at the three things mentioned below:
- Certainty,
- Uncertainty, and
- Contribution of that respective field.
To some extent, there is a co-existence between certainty and uncertainty. People strive for certainty or stability e.g. that they will get a paycheck on time, or can ascend the corporate ladder easily, or can assign a certain type of work to a specific office time.
However, uncertainty is what makes the jobs interesting, which may include, a bonus or reward for working hard or a chance to travel abroad should come into play over time.
As a third consideration, every person wants to find a sense of fulfilment related to their work, which comes in part from our sense of contributing to society or pursuing our goals.
Therefore, all the above-mentioned conditions are mostly fulfilled in the field of Intellectual Property which makes this field even more lucrative.
The following are the reasons why you should choose IPR as a career:
- Recession-proof: Regardless of the economic climate (boom or recession), businesses with a brand, an IP strategy, and the drive to pursue opportunities will always be considered necessary. For example, during the economic recession of 2008, several businesses made/invented ideas due to which they clocked a decent profit throughout the recession.
The global Covid-19 pandemic has adversely affected several sectors resulting in losses throughout 2020-21. However, one of the areas where the pandemic had only minimal impact is the IP sector. The simple reason is that inventions and innovation are integral components of human development, and therefore, IP attorneys are always required to protect such ideas and businesses.
- Salary: In America, an IP lawyer can earn an average salary of $117,360 per year or $56 per hour. While 10% of the population earns more than $211,000 annually, another 10% makes less than $65,000 annually. According to payscale (see here), an average IP lawyer salary in India is Rs 589, 581 per year.
An IP attorney with less than 1 year of experience (entry-level) can expect to earn Rs 205,209, including bonuses, or tips, or overtime compensation. However, a lawyer having 1-4 years of experience in this field earns approximately Rs 600,000.
- Growth rate: In the last several years, this industry has grown tremendously. Along with local businesses which are registering trademarks, India has also seen an increase in patents, copyrights, and trademark registrations.
Additionally, the expansion of the global market has led to many Indian companies outsourcing their work. Outsourced jobs in India include patent research, patent docketing, paralegal services, etc. For instance, several companies like IBM, outsource work of patent analytics to India as India has a wide pool of experts and qualified professionals which cost substantially less. Due to the high cost of legal services in the US, many Indian companies now handle patent docketing and contact with the patent office.
- Job with ‘dream’ companies: Generally, leading Indian companies with Research and Development teams have good budgets to spend on patents, and other intellectual property investments. Google, Facebook, Samsung, and GSK, Alva, Ranbaxy, and many others in the tech industry have IPR positions available from time to time. Thus, switching your career in the IP field can open up opportunities for you to work with highly sought after multinational conglomerates.
- Variety of options: One of the advantages of working in the IP field is that you can choose any vertical/sector within the IP industry. For instance:
- Analytics teams can be a good choice for people who have an analytical mindset.
- Drafting can be a good choice for those who are inclined towards writing.
- Those who seek challenging roles can choose patent prosecution and related fields.
- Challenging: IP lawyers should appreciate creativity, and understand the various ways in which it can be expressed. As a relatively broad field, this field encompasses diverse and technically challenging but incredibly fascinating projects, which always require a solid understanding of the latest industry trends and developments. IP lawyers will plan and organize multiple concurrent projects, as well as handle complicated discussions.
YLCC would like to thank Nikunj Arora for his valuable insights in this article.
